Disruption And Reconstruction

This thesis analyzes the essence of self in Eugene O'Neill's drama under the frame of modern philosophy and modern tragedy theory, it illustrates that the characters in different type of his plays present different properties. Characters in O'Neill's plays take on disrupted and fragmental self because of several reasons, his drama shows that he has tried to make effort to close the disrupted and lost soul of modern people.This thesis is divided into five parts: The first part is the introduction describing the modern tragedy theory which concentrates on human individual existence and perceives certain human's spiritual factors(such as irrational emotion, volition, intuition, life, unconsciousness etc.)as the noumenon of the world. This thesis discusses questions in the structure of tragedy theory after ontological turnaround.The second part firstly traces back the tradition of writing self in western dramatic history, it considers that Eugene O'Neill as one playwright of the dramatic tradition necessarily continuing to present self in his drama. Secondly, it discusses several controversial views in his mind which probably leads to self disruption.In the third part, the nature of self in different type of his drama is analyzed by modern tragedy theory, philosophy and psychology. It considers that self is continuously transforming and always in disrupted or fragmental status, it reflects the course of O'Neill's pursuit of self.The fourth part discusses three means to close disrupted soul of modern people. Oriental philosophy could close the disrupted self can be found in his drama, Death is one way to obtain the integrity of self, Faith, tolerance and good ethical relationship between people is the third way.The fifth part is epilogue, it traces back the transformational noumenon in western tragedy theory and considers that discussing the issue of self in O'Neill's drama is good for understanding the significance of his plays and meaningful for reconstructing the spiritual homestead of modern human.